City: Bengaluru

Raghavendra H Auradkar addressing the press on July 20, 2014. Pic: Nikita Malusare “This guy arrested today for the horrific [alleged] rape of the six year old has taught hundreds of kids in this area according to the word around these parts. He used to come to our apartment and teach kids two days a week or so!” wrote Whitefield area resident and civic activist Sanjay Vijayaraghavan on Facebook on Sunday night. Shobha Belakerappa, an IT professional, had similar emotions: “My son was being coached by the same instructor as part of regular SPA activity, as well as summer camp…

Heroes are those who rise when they fall, choose to fight back a wrong or injustice instead of accepting it. When the Vibgyor High school in Marathahalli, Bengaluru, ran into controversy because of the alleged rape of a student, the way the parents of the school children were united in their fight against the inefficient system that could not protect a child is an example to follow. They made use of online groups to unite together for the cause and bring home one single point - no more threat to security of kids. They framed a set of questions and…

School might lose its recognition if the ISCE board considers the State government's request. Pic: Nikita Malusare The already-battered parents of Vibgyor High school students in Marathahalli, Bengaluru, were in for a rude shock on July 18, 2014, Friday late evening. In the backdrop of widespread criticism in the media, the Department of Public Instruction, Karnataka, wrote to ICSE board, requesting that the recognition given to Vibgyor High school in Marathahalli, be withdrawn. A press release from Commissioner for Public Instruction, Mohammad Mohsin, stated: “The Department has viewed seriously on a sexual assault on a child studying in that [Vibgyor]…

The High Court directed Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to reopen the processing unit in Mavallipura, by allowing upto 300 tonnes of pure segregated wet waste to be composted. The two-judge Divisional Bench headed by N Kumar and Nagarathna gave the order in the special hearing that took place in High Court of Karnataka on July 17, 2014. The 40-acre landfill has been leased out to Ramky Infrastructure Pvt.Ltd for 25 years, in which there is a part that has a processing unit. The Judge, N Kumar said that instead of lying unused, this should be used to process pure…

Parents protesting on Vibgyor High premises in Marathahalli on Thursday. Pic:Nikita Malusare Sending a child to school just isn’t the same any more. The latest incident that reinforces this unfortunate truth is what happened at the Marathahalli branch of Vibgyor High School, one of the more reputed private schools in the city, catering largely to educated upper middle class parents, many of them migrants to the city. On 2 July, a child studying in the first grade was punished with ‘isolation’ in another room of the same school, during which two men, at least one among them reportedly being a…

Bangalore and Seattle. Two cities more than 8,000 miles apart separated by the vast Atlantic Ocean and opposing viewpoints, even farther apart, on how different levels of government should interact. One favours a stronger control of city governance through the central and state government, while another favours a more self-supporting city government. Both are large metropolitan areas, at least relative to their respective countries, but the population density of Seattle pales in comparison to Bangalore’s population density. Seattle’s metropolitan area has an average population density of 230 people per square kilometers, while Bangalore has a staggering 13,495 people per square…

There has been renewed hope among some circles in Bengaluru after the Union Railway Minister Mr. Sadananda Gowda made a mention in the Rail Budget about the much delayed Suburban Rail System. The project also found a mention in Siddaramaiah state budget last year. A Special Purpose Vehicle was formed as well by the State Government. This was without the involvement of Railway Board. Praja RAAG, an online forum, has been pushing for implementation of CRS for the last few years. Unfortunately, they have found little support from political circles or from citizens for this project. This is not surprising…

July 15 was the deadline for the public to send in comments and suggestions  to the government’s ministry of labour and employment, about the proposed amendment to the law on child labour (prohibition). An NGO, Walkfree, working on child labour abolition had put out alerts, urging the public to sign the petition to the government, but at last count just before the deadline, there were only around 2,300 signatures. In a country of 1.2 billion people, this hardly qualifies as “popular involvement.” I haven't seen any involvement on this in Bangalore. We need deeper thinking, especially among the citizenry (rather…

I was recently required to set up a new bank account. The entire process took all of one week and I really didn’t have much to complain about. During that week however, one employee decided to become my self-appointed relationship manager — getting my number off company records and whatsapping me repeatedly after 8 pm at night, with delightful ‘Hi’ texts. Nothing irks me more than a genius who thinks a text that starts and ends with ‘Hi’, makes for a good start to anything. Maybe it was the fact that we were both Malayali and he thought we had…

Compact Fluorescent Lamps fall under e-waste category, however Bangalore does not have a system to recycle them. Pic: Wikimedia and Wikihow We feel good about the savings Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) achieve in terms of energy efficiency and cost, and the bright lights that light up our homes. The city of Bengaluru sees high CFL usage. However, once a CFL loses its life, what does one do? Throw it carelessly into dustbin away from one’s eyes, and forget it? What happens to it then? Here’s what happens. The CFL light joins a pile of garbage, tied inside a plastic cover.…